Who produces the wealth of America?

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

I found this opinion of one Ricky Poff to be very precise and straight to the point.  He outlines the position of who builds the wealth in this country that pays the taxes and helps people find jobs.  If it were not for the private sector's wealth, the government would not be able to coerce any taxes from citizens,  Obama is very much in favor of empowering the government at the expense of the private sector.

I am afraid that if we keep Obama in for one more term as President, government will become something of a lethal parasite devouring the wealth and energy of the private sector; which will have consequences on our national security, and economic viability throughout the 21st Century.

Personal Income & Spending

POST IRENE, THE WORLD LOOKS SUNNIER...FOR NOW
By Charles Payne, CEO & Principal Analyst

8/29/2011 9:51:09 AM Eastern Time




Personal Income and Spending

Personal income climbed 0.3% in July, which was in line with some estimates, and slightly below other consensus readings. On the other hand, personal spending surged by 0.8%, which is well above the 0.5% the Street expected. Spending came at the expense of savings, which tumbled to 5.0% from 5.5% month to month.

Friday sees the latest on employment, and it's one of those deals where the number could be miserable but also beat the Street. One thing for sure is our employment situation is dismal, especially among young adults and men of all ages. Only 48.8% of the youth (16 to 24) are employed, this is the lowest percentage ever, since this series has been kept. Back in 1969, more than 95% of men ages 24 to 55 worked; today, that number has plunged to 81.0%. So any kind of "positive" could move the market needle, although we need robust numbers to turn the country around.

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

OBAMA Flyover

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Memorial Day cookout will cost you 29% more this year thanks to inflation | Mail Online

Memorial Day cookout will cost you 29% more this year thanks to inflation | Mail Online

Who besides Democrats, Obama, and Pelosi do we have to thank for the high prices this Memorial Day?

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

State Approves Detroit Schools' Cuts - WSJ.com

State Approves Detroit Schools' Cuts - WSJ.com

The state of Michigan approved a plan for Detroit to close about half of its public schools and increase the average size of high-school classrooms to 60 students over the next four years to eliminate a $327 million deficit. The plan was submitted in January by Robert Bobb, Detroit Public Schools' emergency financial manager, as a last-ditch scenario if the district couldn't find new revenue sources, which it hasn't so far.

Final approval came after Mike Flanagan, the state superintendent of public instruction, cleared Mr. Bobb's initial plan with some new requirements, including that the district not file for bankruptcy protection during Mr. Bobb's remaining months in office. The state approved the plan in a Feb. 8 letter, which the Detroit public-schools district released Monday.

Mr. Bobb said the deep cuts were necessary if the district hoped to be solvent again without additional state aid. But he said the strategy was ultimately ill-advised because it will likely drive even more students away, depriving the district of needed state funds, which Michigan apportions on the basis of enrollment. "This is the route we're forced to take under state law," Steven Wasko, Detroit Public Schools' assistant superintendent for communications, said Monday. "However we continue to look for longer-term plans so we can avoid this."

Mr. Bobb is now moving to shrink the district to 72 schools from 142, as enrollment is expected to decline to 58,570 students by 2014 from about 73,000 students today.

Mr. Bobb was appointed emergency financial manager for the district two years ago to help close what was then a $218 million deficit, and moved quickly to close schools and root out waste. But the deficit deepened during his tenure, weighed down by salary, pension and health-care obligations. The longtime municipal manager said that without the cuts and cost-savings measures he has made since 2009, the district would face a deficit of more than $500 million today. Meanwhile, many of his efforts to restructure the district's academics and finances were derailed by clashes with unions and with the elected school board, which recently won a court fight to control academics and select the next superintendent.

Anthony Adams, the chairman of the school board, didn't respond Monday to a request for comment. The school board has sought an infusion of funds from the state and an end to outside control of the district. Mr. Bobb has agreed to stay a few more months beyond his appointed term, through the end of June. A spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Rick Snyder said Monday that he was considering appointing another emergency manager to succeed

Mr. Bobb, which would keep the elected board of education largely sidelined on financial matters for the near future.

Organized labor is fighting back. The Detroit Federation of Teachers called for an emergency lobbying day Tuesday in Lansing, the state capital, to protest bills granting emergency financial managers broad power over cities and school districts in financial crisis. Under those bills, emergency managers could toss out union contracts, dissolve school boards and set wage and benefit levels without collective bargaining. Mr. Bobb is generally supportive of the bills, said Mr. Wasko, the assistant superintendent.

Calls to union officials weren't immediately returned Monday.

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Man charged with 3 counts of murder in Va. attacks - Yahoo! News

Man charged with 3 counts of murder in Va. attacks - Yahoo! News

MANASSAS, Va. – A Salvadoran man who was ordered deported nearly a decade ago but never left has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in a series of shootings and a knife attack in a Virginia suburb of Washington, authorities said Friday. Jose Oswaldo Reyes Alfaro, an illegal immigrant, was charged in the pair of attacks blocks apart Thursday night that left three people dead and three others injured, Manassas Police Chief Doug Keen said.

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NationalJournal.com - The Phantom 15 Million - Friday, January 21, 2011

NationalJournal.com - The Phantom 15 Million - Friday, January 21, 2011: "The Great Recession wiped out what amounts to every U.S. job created in the 21st century. But even if the recession had never happened, if the economy had simply treaded water, the United States would have entered 2010 with 15 million fewer jobs than economists say it should have.

Somehow, rapid advancements in technology and the opening of new international markets paid dividends for American companies but not for American workers. An economy that long thrived on its dynamism, shedding jobs in outdated and less competitive industries and adding them in innovative new fields, fell stagnant in the swirls of the most globalized decade of commerce in human history.

Even now, no one really knows why.

This we do know: The U.S. economy created fewer and fewer jobs as the 2000s wore on. Turnover in the job market slowed as workers clung to the positions they held. Job destruction spiked in each of the decade’s two recessions. In contrast to the pattern of past recessions, when many employers recalled laid-off workers after growth picked up again, this time very few of those jobs came back.

These are the first clues—incomplete, disconcerting, and largely overlooked—to a critical mystery bedeviling a nation struggling to crawl out of near-double-digit unemployment. We know what should have transpired over the past 10 years: the completion of a circle of losses and gains from globalization. Emerging technology helped firms send jobs abroad or replace workers with machines; it should have also spawned domestic investment in innovative industries, companies, and jobs. That investment never happened—not nearly enough of it, in any case.

If we can’t figure out why, we may be doomed to a future that feels like a long jobless recovery, no matter how fast our economy grows. “It’s the trillion-dollar question,” says David E. Altig, senior vice president and research director for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where economists are beginning to explore the shifts that have clubbed American workers like a blackjack. “Something big has happened. I really don’t think we have a complete story yet.”


THE LOST DECADE

We certainly didn’t see it coming. At the turn of the millennium, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that the U.S. economy would create nearly 22 million net jobs in the 2000s, only slightly fewer than the boom 1990s yielded. The economists predicted “good opportunities for jobs” and “an optimistic vision for the U.S. economy” through 2010.

Businesses would reap the gains of new trading markets, the projection said, and continue to invest in technologies to boost the productivity of their operations. High-tech jobs would abound, both for systems analysts with four years of college and for computer-support analysts with associate’s degrees. The manufacturing sector would stop a decades-long jobs slide, and technology would lead the turnaround. Hundreds of thousands of newly hired factory workers would make cutting-edge electrical and communications products, including semiconductors, satellites, cable-television equipment, and “cellular phones, modems, and facsimile and answering machines.”

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Bad Economic News!

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

In the spotlight - the spectre of rising food prices returns: Food news & analysis

In the spotlight - the spectre of rising food prices returns: Food news & analysis: "Global food prices are at a record high again, only two years or so after the last dramatic price spike sparked food riots and heightened the debate worldwide over food security. While there is alarm, analysts appear less worried about the current situation than they were in 2008. Food manufacturers, however, may beg to differ. Ben Cooper reports.

The spectre of sky-high food prices is back with a vengeance with serious implications for consumers, for governments attempting to shepherd economies through a fragile recovery period and not least for food manufacturers.

With the shock of the financial crisis, the worrying spike in food prices in 2008 may have faded from the memory somewhat but recent months have brought it back to mind all too clearly. The recent adverse weather in Australia and Brazil and the downgrading of crop forecasts in the US has heightened anxiety further.

In fact, according to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) the current spike has taken global food prices higher than the 2008 surge. The UN's Food Price Index, which tracks monthly price fluctuations across the dairy, meat, sugar, cereals and oilseed markets, averaged 214.7 points in December, against 206 points in November and 213.5 points at its previous record high in June 2008.

The chief catalyst behind the rise has been sugar, cereal and oil price increases, with high sugar prices particularly influential. The 2008 spike resulted in considerably greater focus being paid to the issue of food security and arguably having a further price surge in such a short timeframe will only heighten those concerns further.

However, the FAO suggested that the current situation does not represent a crisis, citing the fact that the price of rice, the staple of 3bn people in Asia and Africa, remains well below its record high, and the situation has not sparked the widespread food riots in developing countries seen in 2008.

In an interview with the Financial Times, FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian stressed that from a global food security perspective rice and wheat are the critical commodities and not sugar, oilseeds or meat, though he added that it would be 'foolish' to assume prices had reached their peak.

Other analysts have also played down the current situation. Analysts at Credit Suisse pointed out that the situation in 2007/2008 had been exacerbated by governments in countries such as India and Vietnam imposing export restrictions on rice. 'The estimated global and exporting countries' stock-to-use ratios of both wheat and rice are considerably higher today than in 2007-08, making shortages and drastic export bans unlikely, in our view,' Credit Suisse said.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

U.S. Adds 103,000 Jobs in December, Unemployment at 9.4% - Bloomberg

U.S. Adds 103,000 Jobs in December, Unemployment at 9.4% - Bloomberg: "Employers in the U.S. added fewer jobs than forecast in December and the unemployment rate dropped, partly reflecting a shrinking workforce, a sign the labor-market recovery will take time to develop.

Payrolls increased 103,000, compared with the median forecast of 150,000 in a Bloomberg News survey, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Employment the previous two months increased more than previously estimated. The jobless rate fell to 9.4 percent, the lowest level since May 2009.

Faster job growth is needed to keep consumer spending accelerating and ensure the economic recovery becomes self- sustaining. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the drop in the jobless rate is likely to be slow, indicating policy makers will stick to their plan for more monetary stimulus.

“The economy is adding workers but there are no reliable signs the pace of hiring is improving,” said Julia Coronado, chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas in New York. “We are staying on track but I’m not sure growth is set to accelerate.”

Stocks fell after the report, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropping 0.1 percent to 1,272.52 at 9:53 a.m. in New York. Treasuries were little changed from late yesterday, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note at 3.40 percent.

Construction payrolls declined by the most since May and professional and business services added the fewest number of jobs in five months.

Range of Estimates

Overall payroll estimates of 78 economists ranged from 98,000 to 240,000. The median climbed from 140,000 at the start of the week after projections from ADP Employer Services showed companies boosted employment by 297,000 workers last month.

November employment rose 71,000, more than an initially reported gain of 39,000. Payrolls in November and October combined were 70,000 more than previously estimated.

For all of 2010, about 1.1 million jobs were created, the most since 2006.

At the pace of improvement projected by Fed officials, “it could take four to five more years for the job market to normalize fully,” Bernanke said today in prepared testimony to the Senate Budget Committee.

The unemployment rate was forecast to fall to 9.7 percent, according to the median prediction of 73 economists surveyed. Estimates ranged from 9.5 percent to 9.9 percent.

Highest Since 1983

For all of 2010, the jobless rate averaged 9.6 percent, the highest since 1983 and up from 9.3 percent a year earlier. With today’s report, the Labor Department revised figures from its household survey used in calculating the unemployment rate going back five years. Benchmark revisions to the payroll data will be announced in February.

Private payrolls, which exclude government agencies, rose by 113,000 last month after a 79,000 November gain.

Manufacturing payrolls rose by 10,000 in December. Economists had projected an increase of 5,000.

Employment at service-providers increased 105,000. The number of temporary workers rose 16,000. Construction companies reduced payrolls by 16,000 and retailers added 12,000 workers.

Government payrolls decreased by 10,000. State and local governments reduced employment by 20,000, while the federal government added 10,000 jobs.

Budget Gaps

States and municipalities with growing budget gaps are cutting spending and reducing headcount. Florida may cut 5 percent of its state workforce to save costs, Governor-elect Rick Scott said in an interview Dec. 3 on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness With Margaret Brennan.”

Retailers and automakers are among industries hiring.

Dollar General, the biggest of the U.S. dollar discount stores, plans to add 6,000 jobs as it opens 625 more stores in fiscal 2011. By the end of 2011, the Goodlettsville, Tennessee- based discounter said last month it will have created 15,000 jobs since 2009.

Ford Motor Co., the world’s most profitable automaker, is hiring 1,800 workers and spending $600 million to overhaul a factory in Louisville, Kentucky, to build small sport-utility vehicles, Marcey Evans, a Ford spokeswoman, said in an interview last month.

“While it appears that the economic environment has stabilized and is perhaps improving, persistent high unemployment and uncertainty in the economy could continue to pressure consumers and affect their spending,” Steven Temares, chief executive officer at Union, New Jersey-based Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., said on a teleconference with analysts Dec. 22. Still, “we remain cautiously optimistic,” he said.

Consumer Spending

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, has picked up. Holiday purchases rose 5.5 percent, the best performance since 2005, said MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, which measures retail sales by all payment forms. That compared with a 4.1 percent gain a year earlier. The numbers include Internet sales and exclude automobile purchases.

The average work week for all workers held at 34.3 hours.

The so-called underemployment rate -- which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- dropped to 16.7 percent.

The report also showed an increase in the number of long- term unemployed Americans. The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more increased as a percentage of all jobless, to 44.3 percent.

One reason why hiring has been slow to pick up is the economy’s inability to match the recovery’s earlier pace of growth. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.6 percent annual rate in the third quarter, compared to 5 percent in the last three months of 2009.

Fed’s Plan

High unemployment explains why Fed policy makers said they need to follow through on their plan to purchase an additional $600 billion in Treasury securities by June.

“The economic recovery is continuing, though at a rate that has been insufficient to bring down unemployment,” officials said in a statement after their Dec. 14 meeting.

The struggling labor market is also a reason why President Barack Obama last month signed an $858 billion bill extending all Bush-era tax cuts for two years. The bill also continues expanded unemployment insurance benefits through 2011 and cuts payrolls taxes by 2 percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Willis in Washington at bwillis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness